Army of Two: The 40th Day Review
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Posted by:
XDAO AWESOME
on January 20, 2010
Army of Two: The 40th Day shouldn’t receive any praise, but I’m going to be giving it a ton. Why? Because no matter how technically flawed it is, I can’t help but keep playing it. Most of the things in the sequel will be recognizable to anyone who played the first Army of Two. The game is heavily focused on co-op play, and using tactical teamwork to defeat enemies and progress through the levels. Army of Two: The 40th Day expands on this idea without really fixing many of the issues from the first game, and somehow adds a boatload more. However, this all became secondary as I progressed through the game.The concept behind Army of Two is very simple. You and a buddy (Salem and Rios) are mercenaries who carry out jobs for cash. The game is based on an “Aggro” system, where whoever shoots more gets the enemy’s attention. This allows the other player to flank behind enemies to take them out easier. The other huge gameplay mechanic is the customization system. Depending on the parts you put on your gun, it can raise or lower your aggro amount, precision, handling, etc. The weapons feel like your own, and end up performing exactly how you want them to. Well, that’s not entirely true. The control mechanics in Army of Two haven’t received much change, and it was desperately needed after the first installment. The controls feel entirely too heavy, meaning it takes a long time to look where you want and to stop where you want. The cover system is hit or miss, you’ll slide into cover when you don’t want to, and you won’t when you need to. My main complaint with the controls has to do with up close and personal shooting. If someone happens to get close to you and you pull your trigger, it’s like your gun doesn’t recognize the body, because they are “in your gun”, so to speak. The game seriously has some kind of seizure when this happens and it makes it borderline impossible to shoot someone from a very close position. How none of this was changed, I don’t know, but it’s not the only issues you’ll run into with this new installment in the Army of Two series.
The biggest problem with Army of Two: The 40th Day is the technical flaws. It seems like this game never went through testing, and EA was satisfied releasing it as is, with a patch in the pipeline. I wouldn’t be surprised if a patch never came, but I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that needed one more. Here’s a list of what to expect: The frame rate is sporadic at best, running fluidly one minute, and then dipping to a crawl the next. If you are playing co-op online, you’re teammate will drop at least once – I personally had it happen about three times. The game freezes constantly in any mode – We were forced to replay a certain mission five times due to freezing at the same part, and each of us froze roughly 10 times throughout the co-op campaign. Multiplayer isn’t any better in that regard. Sometimes, searching for a quick match is an auto freeze. It’s about a 50/50 chance, and I’ve frozen over 10 times searching for matches in general. It’s not fun to reset my Xbox every five seconds, and the forums seem to agree with that sentiment. There are also audio issues to be found. Sometimes the sound effects will be so high that you can’t hear any voices… or vice versa. It almost gets this “tin” sound and it’s a game-breaker at certain moments. There is nothing like a cutscene where you can’t hear any story due to the voices not coming up.
Oh yes, the story – well, there isn’t one. The entire point of the game is that Salem and Rios are in Shanghai and then everything starts to blow up, people start shooting at you, and you need to get out of Shanghai. Yes, this is the entire story, and you know nothing about who’s behind it or why it’s happening until the very end of the game. There is in no way this game was shipped as a finished product, and if this was what they had on the drawing board, I’d question what they were aiming for with Army of Two: The 40th Day… besides sales and a nice paycheck.
There is a lot of good to be taken from the game, though, and I hate how much of a negative tone I have to take when talking about it. I enjoyed every second I played it when it worked. The campaign is paced very well, so much so that I never got bored. The game is repetitive by nature, where you are just constantly shooting enemies non-stop. This doesn’t get boring, because of the weapon customization, the aggro system, and the awesome teamwork you can use to clear an area. The game is seven chapters long, none of them breaking much over 45 minutes, so the game doesn’t even break the 6 hour mark. With that said, the pacing does save it from feeling too short. It’s enjoyable from beginning to end and has a ton of replay value. Hoping on with a friend and clearing out areas on hard mode is an insane amount of fun and gives the game enough time investment to justify the pricing.
The multiplayer is also worth some extra playtime if you can get used to it. It’s frustrating and unpolished, but the Co-op Deathmatch mode is exciting and fun once you learn the quirks of the multiplayer itself. Blindfiring tends to be more successful with most weapons, and like Gears of War, host tends to win most of the time. Co-op Deathmatch is set-up as five teams of two (just like Gears of War’s “wingman” mode) and you have 10 minutes to rack up the most points. Killing both members of another team nets you a bonus, as does becoming another player’s rival. There is also a control-point mode, where you and your teammates need to hold a zone for a set amount of time to win (like Annex in Gears of War). Then there is a warzone mode, which is like Killzone 2’s main mode. You are constantly thrown new objectives, and the first to complete five objectives wins.
It’s hard recommending Army of Two: The 40th Day in the technical state it’s in, but I honestly love the game. From a critic’s standpoint, I need to highlight the flaws and judge it accordingly. From a personal standpoint, I can’t recommend the game enough. If you play through with a friend, there is a ton of laughs from crazy deaths, and from the stupid partnership stuff you can do. The game has excellent pacing and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It has freezing issues, sound issues, framerate issues, and more… but if you can overlook some of these things, the gameplay foundation found here is excellent. Army of Two: The 40th Day is not worth full price if you don’t have someone to play with, or if you don’t have the patience for the issues mentioned above. If you are looking for a game to play with a friend, though, don’t overlook this one. It’s rough around the edges, but worth it.
Positives
+ A blast with a friend in co-op.
+ A much better multiplayer offering this time around
+ Weapon customization.Negatives
- So many technical issues it’s impossible to name them all. Freezing, framerate, audio, and connection problems are there, just to name a few.
- More back to back sequences are needed. There were more in the first game and they are missed in this one.
- A bit short..
Grade – C
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Written and Copyrighted by Shawn R. Wedick POWRDUP.com
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